Lydia Panas will discuss the process and the intent behind her work. Taking us on a personal journey, she looks beneath the surface to examine what we communicate and hold back from others. Combining still photography and video, her work looks within to speak to the universal feelings of love, longing, and the things we keep silent.
Lydia Panas is a conceptual artist whose work is focused on identity and our interior lives. Working primarily with women, her work explores what lies below the surface. Through photography and video, she investigates questions about who we are and what we want to become. A first-generation American, raised between Greece and the United States, her sense of home has always felt elusive. All her work is been made in the fields and forests of her seventy-acre farm in Pennsylvania. Exploring the roles of power and trust on both sides of the camera, she describes what it feels like to be a woman, to be human, by experiencing the complex range of emotions we have the capacity to feel. The connection she feels to this land and her family is the foundation of her work.
Lydia Panas’ work has been exhibited widely in museums and galleries in the U.S. and internationally. Her works are represented in public and private collections including the Brooklyn Museum, Bronx Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Palm Springs Art Museum, Allentown Art Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, among others. Her work has appeared in many periodicals such as the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, The Village Voice, French Photo, and Hyperallergic. Lydia has degrees from Boston College, School of Visual Arts, and New York University/International Center of Photography. She is the recipient of a Whitney Museum Independent Study Fellowship and a CFEVA Fellowship. She has two monographs, Falling from Grace (Conveyor Arts 2016) and The Mark of Abel (Kehrer Verlag 2012) which was named a best coffee table book by The Daily Beast. A third monograph is scheduled for release in the fall of 2021. She divides her time between Kutztown, Pennsylvania and New York City.
Oh, Snap! is a monthly lecture and workshop series that provides a safe, nonjudgmental environment in which to learn about photography and artistic practice. Oh, Snap! is a trans-inclusive space that welcomes all women and gender-nonconforming people. Please contact coordinator Lori Waselchuk with any questions at lori@philaphotoarts.org.
